Oliver Lake (Musician)
Whether composing major commissioned works for the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra and the Brooklyn Philharmonic; creating chamber pieces for the Arditti and Flux String Quartets, the Amherst Sax Quartet and the San Francisco Contemporary Players; arranging for pop diva Bjork, rocker Lou Reed and rap group A Tribe Called Quest; collaborating with poets Amiri Baraka and Ntozake Shange, choreographers Ron Brown and Marlies Yearby, Native American vocalist Mary Redhouse, Korean kumongo player Jin Hi Kim and Chinese bamboo flute player Shuni Tsou; doing unique performances with MacArthur Award recipients, actress/author Anna Devere Smith and writer/lawyer/professor/political commentator Patricia Williams; sharing the stage with hip-hop artist Mos Def and pop star Me'shell Ndegeocello; or leading his own Steel Quartet, Big Band and cooperative ensembles the World Saxophone Quartet and Trio 3; Oliver view it all as parts of the same whole.

 

Reid Rejsa (sound designer) designed the sound for The Fula From America. He has designed sound for The Jungle Theater, Arizona Theatre Company, Ordway/McKnight Theater, Frank Theatre, Mixed Blood, The Guthrie Lab, Penumbra Theatre, Eye of the Storm, The Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company and others. He was Master Sound Technician for the Children's Theatre Company for ten years, where he designed 30 productions. He has worked as a recording engineer, live sound technician, guitarist and as an audio engineer for KARE-11 News Saturday.

 

Louise Smith (actor) has been an actor, writer, and solo performer for over twenty-five years. Best know for her work with Ping Chong & Company and her 1990 Bessie Award winning performance for Ping Chong's Brightness, she has worked with Julie Taymor as Ariel in The Tempest, with Anne Bogart in the Obie Award winning production of No Plays No Poetry, with Liz Swados in The Haggadah, Meredith Monk in Venice Milan/Chacconne and Mercy. Her original solo work has been seen around the country and she directed Carlyle in The Fula From America, and is featured in their upcoming collaboration Smith & Brown. She is head of the Theater Department at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where Carlyle was artist-in-residence over four consecutive fall semesters teaching playwriting and developing new work.

 

James A. Williams (actor) first worked with founder Carlyle Brown in the role of Tambo in The Little Tommy Parker Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show at Penumbra Theatre in 1986; and again in the following year he created the role of Billy Brown in Penumbra's production of The African Company Presents Richard III. Mr. Williams went on to direct a production of Tommy Parker at St. Louis Black Repertory Company. He played the Chief of Police in The Children's Theatre Company production of Carlyle Brown's The Beggars' Strike and the Black Othello in the Carlyle Brown & Company production of Masks of Othello. He will appear in the ensemble of the Company's upcoming production of Smith & Brown. He is a founding member of Penumbra Theatre Company, an associate artist with Pillsbury House Theatre and was a member of the resident company at the Guthrie Theater. He has been active actor in the Twin Cities theater scene since 1977.

 

Donna Lawrence

Donna Lawrence is a nationally recognized media producer/director whose work is consistently recognized for its memorable storytelling qualities, innovative use of state-of-the-art techniques, and high-impact soundtracks. Her company, Donna Lawrence Productions,  creates media experiences for theatrical environments and visitor attractions in the U.S. and abroad.  Past productions have included highly acclaimed attraction films, multi-screen installations, 360˚ films, interactive experiences, sound and light shows, theatrical environments, and other unique installations. The resulting work has received top awards in almost every national and international festival dedicated to special format, documentary, or permanently-installed media, including the Sundance Film Festival, the International Documentary Association, The New York Festivals, AAM's Muse Awards, and many others.

 
Ms. Lawrence was elected to the Producer’s Hall of Fame by AMI, the Association for Multi-Media International, and has been a guest panelist at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Museums (AAM), as well as the American Association of State and Local History. She has Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Music from the University of Texas and the New England Conservatory and studied at the UCLA Institute of Ethnomusicology with special emphases on Latin American and African American music traditions.
 
Past project include the Kentucky Derby Museum’s groundbreaking 360˚ media feature, The Greatest Race; The Motown Sound, a powerful exploration of the music and the story behind it; and Freedom Rising, the landmark live/media theatrical production for the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Currently Ms. Lawrence is directing or producing signature productions for the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center;  Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home; and the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center.

 

Revised: 02/12/09.